Differentiation or Just Plain Laziness: What am I Thinking?

I read a blog posting from Scott McLeod on his blog Dangerously Irrelevant, that got me thinking about teaching. In his post titled "Ignore the Test" he suggests that teachers would continue to teach to the test even if the standardized tests went away. He believes that we (teachers) would continue with study guides, multiple choice tests and worksheets. The point he makes seems valid; we used those styles of teaching even before standardized testing, why would we change just because they went away? He brings this up in the context of his belief and that of many others that we need to be teaching students to think, analyze, defend, and apply. I completely agree in theory and mostly agree in practice and reality. I believe that there are many great teachers who are challenging students to think and apply knowledge outside the classroom. I would bet it is more than most think. But I also would guess that there are many teachers who still follow the lecture, memorization, worksheet, test style of learning. I can't speak for others because I am not an expert on others' classrooms, so I will discuss mine. When it comes to "teaching to the test" whether my own or a standardized one, or teaching to think, I have to admit I am a Jekyll and Hyde teacher. I have had certain classes that I created as more of a project based course to fit real life, application situations (not the projects that simply fill time, mind you) of the information where students create, cite, explain and defend, and I have some classes that are more rote "what happens in the story," define vocab words, answer grammar worksheets, "teach to the test" classes. Some might think that this Jekyll and Hyde was laziness on my part. I admit year-to-year, it is "easier" (none of it is easy) to "teach to the test"because once you create the curriculum on a daily basis there is very little to change and you know what to expect from the students whereas in project base you never know what to expect from the students in discussion and product of project. But I believe that I was simply (yes, I will drop the buzz word) differentiating my instruction.
Let's face it, even in high school, there are students who still have difficulty grasping basic information. They need a more "teach to the test" style teaching, discussion, and grade. And there is another population of student who has very little problem gathering and understanding information. They need instruction in the areas of using and applying information. What I am describing here are the basics of Information Literacy, by the way. However, that said, I do not believe that classes should be all "rote" or all "project based;" I believe that differentiation needs to occur and the classes need to address the needs of the students, but also keep 21st century skills in mind. Students need to be able to defend, create and think, but they also need to have ability to understand and gather information.
Now that I have spun my wheels, I'm getting on my bike to think this through a little.